How Are Cellphone Thieves Obtaining Your Passcode?

Reyhan Ayas says she was standing outside a bar when a thief snatched her iPhone. She says she lost access to all her photos because the thief locked her out of her Apple accounts. Although the pictures are in Apple's iCloud, she says for security and privacy reasons Apple will not restore her access. Apple says they "sympathize" with customers who've had this experience and take the incidents seriously. They also say they work hard to protect users' accounts and are always investigating additional protections against new threats. For privacy reasons, Apple also says they do not accept passports or driver's licenses to confirm ownership of an account.

[mysticnightwolf]

Apple really needs to stop saying that they can’t do anything about things like this. They need to step up protections for the customers’ sake. And allow them to access their accounts again and make the changes necessary to ensure that the thieves can’t steal any more than what they have already.

[kylewagner]

Keep your phone in your pocket. Do not lay it down someplace and keep your phone with you! Change passwords and codes often! When you notice it was stolen, take action to ensure your bank is aware and change your passcodes to the bank. I know it sucks, but be vigilant and outsmart the thieves. Also, don't get so inebriated that you can't function.

[airportdocumentaries]

Make sure to put a pin on your SIM card. So if your phone does get stolen and he puts the sim into another phone it will ask for a pin to unlock the SIM. This will prevent the thief from getting two-step verification text messages and will prevent them from easily gaining access to your email, bank accounts and any other account that uses 2 step verification.

[SoraFan]

Why the heck is Apple allowing this to happen? You would think they would have more security measures in place to stop this from happening.

[valiredavis]

This is why I do not use my phone out in the open while in public.

My phone is always connected to my hidden pouch that goes over my neck & shoulder — If I need to use it in an emergency, I go a good distance away from everyone and talk on it with my back against a wall so that I can see if anyone is walking toward me.

[MelissaJoans]

This is why I use a privacy screen protector

[ChelSierra_Remly]

All Apple has to do is save the owner's fingerprints on first use. Only those fingerprints can get access back to their accounts after being stolen. No need for the phone owner to ever update or change fingerprints, so if someone (thief) tries to change the fingerprints, Apple shuts down access to the phone to anyone that doesn't have those fingerprints.

[hteacave]

1. Print out your pictures
2. Send important pictures to yourself on email
3. Remove the pictures and store it on an external drive
4. Keep picture albums (physical) and external drive in a lockbox in the bank or storage unit
5. Always make sure no one is looking at your phone as you type
6. Don't log into bank from phone
7. You can in the setting choose that you want them to confirm icloud password before changing passcode I believe

[AlainnCorcaigh]

There's a reason the saying " Don't keep all your eggs in one basket" exists

[annabanna]

I had a laptop stolen in 2007 and the worst part was losing the photos and some digital artwork I did

[mikeybeiza]

Never ever put you life on something that can be stolen .

[vidform]

Why focus ONLY on Apple? This can happen to ALL smartphones. As bad as this is, Apple continues to fight theft and improve data privacy, and I hope the other smartphone makers will do the same. If you're going to report on smartphone theft and privacy issues, it would help to mention how other companies such as Samsung/Android provide a better solution to the problem. If not, then this is just a hit piece news story.

[NowOnline]

Needs to be hard time prison sentences for phone theives. Its not just a phone these days. Its their entire finacial history and access, photoes and everything in between.

[Treeman-ukqf]

People don’t realize that Face ID exist, you rarely put in your password

[bozo]

It is good that they got their money back, but the photos need to be given too.

[lukelukelulu]

This is why you have a different separate code for your banking apps . So even if they get into your phone they can't access your bank app

[LuxuryIncorp]

The solution here is that if you’d like to change the passcode or access the wallet apple needs to require a different passcode than that to unlock the phone.

[throne]

I hope Apple, Google ( Android ), as well as Microsoft, Samsung as well as all major company take notes and improve this. I hope everything should be either facial ID and Biometric access.

[wdkone]

It’s sad when and frustrating when you lose lots of money and your life is clearly ruined just because you got your phone stolen. I really feel bad for these people😢

[christianvazquezequihua]

LOCAL BACKUP, I backup my family’s phones every 6 months to a SSD and I have a back up of that one as well. My family travels to Mexico a lot and is always telling me to keep your phone at home or away while out. I guess that’s starting to apply in the states as well.